The Truth, After A Fashion: 'Ningle Bells' is a casual end-of-year download compilation which casts a bloodshot eye over 2014 by dint of hauling together a dozen tunes either released on fierce panda albums or as singles on associated record companies In Stereo and Label Fandango throughout the year. With astoundingly perverse panda logic 'Ningle Bells', aka ‘12 Songs Of Fierceness’, is released on December 1st but features not one tune which even pretends to pertain to lovelorn penguins.

‘Ningle Bells’ is however a panda indie party mix to end all panda indie party mixes, careering as it does from the rollicking exuberance of The Hosts and The Crookes right through to the exuberant rollicking of Desperate Journalist and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. In between are songs of loss and artrocking by Swedish pop dreamers Colleagues, nonchalantly hectic American newbies Dalton and Terror Pigeon and electro rovers Zulu Winter and Department M. There is mellow doubt in the melodies of Longfellow and Tom Hickox, and there is of course an appearance by a Hackney soul boy called Albert Gold. It is coming up to Christmas, after all...

Most importantly, 'Ningle Bells' soundtracks a year which saw fierce panda, somewhat unfeasibly, turn 20 whole earth years old. Lurching into 2014 with the traditional live curtain-burning live event known as Pandamonium, we celebrated our birthday by releasing an album called 'endangered: fierce panda 2004-2014' which was the very antithesis of the 'Ningle Bells' party vibe by virtue of being sub-titled 'The Saddest Album In The World'.

We also put on a pawful of special birthday gigs by the old panda likes of Ultrasound, I Like Trains and Goldheart Assembly, received some very nice anniversary write-ups from NME and Music Week and spent a chunk of the spring lovingly labelled as Amazon Label Of The Month, which necessitated yet another compilation album, this time a freebie digital sampler called ‘Survival?’.
Along the way this year of years saw us put out gently wondrous albums by Tom Hickox, The Hosts, The Crookes, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Terror Pigeon!, Desperate Journalist and Longfellow while launching yet more shiny new dreamers up towards the frosty winter moon and beyond. Happily, you can hear evidence of all those album releases on this here ‘Ningle Bells’ compilation. We swear yule love them.